Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Questions from Acts

The most often quoted passages from the book of Acts, at least at my church, is Acts 2:42-47. Man, I love that passage. It's a picture of harmony and it's something my church has desired from the beginning. Community.

Recently, however, I have been taken by and focused on a passage that tells of what Paul and Barnabas did for three of the eariliest churches. Acts 14:23 says: "Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust."

It blows my mind that these two guys returned to areas where they had faced serious dangers for the purpose of bolstering the faith of fellow believers. It says they went back to these places for the purposes of "strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith" (verse 22).

This little chunk of scripture is beautiful to me. For me it raises two questions that deserve to be asked: (1) Who's encouraging and strengthening you in your faith lately? (2) Who are you encouraging and strengthening in your faith lately?

The picture painted in Acts, chapter 2, is really appealing; however, I don't think we can get there if we don't have some genuine pauls and barnabases propping us up.